So far, only two units have been delivered in an approved fleet management group. Its machines overheated and conked out in less than one month.
Read also: Drivers vow zero votes to LP, Mar Roxas
They are also asking instead for government subsidy to allow Filipino jeepney assemblers to modernize the jeepney.
“With more than a million passengers riding all three lines a day, the MRT and LRT generate more than enough income for their operations and maintenance. That’s the reason why big businesses are drooling over and trying to buy them.”
Under the Aquino government, the running MRT trains went down from almost 73 to just about 43. MRT3 workers said that even if some of the remaining trains have problems in its machine or manifesting technical troubles (like in its doors or controls or motor), it is still being used or inserted among others that are still functioning. Worse, workers have to make do with discarded parts because of the lack of spare parts, which was supposed to be provided by maintenance contractors.
See also: ‘MRT3 not milking cow but public service,’ groups tell Transportation Sec. Abaya
SPECIAL REPORT: “We reject the suggestions that these problems (in MRT) would be magically solved by a fare hike. A fare hike would be like rewarding the grossly incompetent, taxpayer money-addicted private management of the MRT.” – James Relativo, spokesman of Train Riders Network
By MARYA SALAMAT
Mar Roxas’ proposed budget slashed by 38-percent the government subsidy on MRT for 2012—from P6.9 billion ($162.7 million) to P4.29-billion ($101.15 million), despite reports of annual increases in passenger load.
Press Release 22 February 2011 “People power might just hit you in the face.” This was labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno’s warning to Pres. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III should he push through with the implementation of the MRT-LRT fare hike. Workers, together with other sectors, have already registered their opposition to the increase in public…
MANILA — LRT employees who were dismissed from work for having launched a crippling strike nearly a decade ago joined the RILES Network in condemning the “continued injustice and poverty in the supposedly righteous path of the Aquino government.” The workers protested in front of the offices of the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) Tuesday — with some of them getting their heads shaved — a few hours before a scheduled consultation with DOTC’s assistant secretary for administrative and legal affairs Raquel Desiderio. (Photo by Marya Salamat / bulatlat.com)
Members of Pagkakaisa ng mga Samahan ng Tsuper at Operator Nationwide (Piston), an organization of public transport drivers, trooped in front of the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) office in Mandaluyong City Monday to oppose the decision of Secretary Jose “Ping “ De Jesus to implement the more than 250 percent toll hike at the Southern Luzon Express Way, as well as the increase of MRT and LRT fares and expanded value-added tax (e-vat) in all toll ways.
By MARYA SALAMAT
Forming his team to set the direction of change or political payback? So far, except for Justice Sec. Leila de Lima, the Cabinet of Pres. Benigno Aquino III is a mixture of key figures in his campaign, representatives of big business, and old hands of the former Arroyo administration.